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Petrus Stuyvesant on behalf of the honorable high and mighty lords States General of the United Netherlands and the honorable lords directors of the Chartered West India Company, director general of N: Netherland, Curaçao, Bonayro, Aruba and the dependencies thereof, together with the honorable lords councilors, the court messenger Claes van Elslant de jonge invited hereto, greetings. Whereas Cornelis Steenwijck and Pieter Jacobsz Buijs, attorneys for Walewijn vander Veen showed us by petition [several lines lost] [      ] condemned (on the [      ] within three times 24 hours to [      ] a mortgage dated 20 October 1655, whereby Jacob van Couwenhoven, for the benefit of the wife of Walewijn vander Veen, secured and mortgaged a certain stone house^[i] and lot together with an adjoining lot, barn, and mill, without (:as they say:) the aforesaid mortgage completely having been satisfied and paid, according to a notarial settlement made between Vander Veen and Jacob van Couwenhooven on the 15th of September 1656; therefore, they request our assistance.

For that reason we order you to summon the aforesaid De Meijer to appear before us here in Fort Amsterdam on next Tuesday, being the 9th of this month, or to send an attorney to reply to such claim and demand as the aforesaid attorneys shall do and take against him; also summoning those of the aforesaid courts to either appear, if they please, on the day as before, or to send an attorney to see the said sentence either annulled or confirmed by us. Relating to us what you encounter, given at Fort Amsterdam in N: Netherland, the 4th of April 1658.

[several lines lost] Cornelis [ Steenwijck and Pieter Jacobsz Buijs ], attorneys for Walewijn [ vander Veen ], plaintiffs by court order [ in a writ of appeal ], against Nicolaes de Meijer, [ defendant ], together with the honorable Poulus Leendertsen van der Grift, burgomaster, and Jacob Gerritse Strijcker, scheepen, commissioner from the lower bench of justice of this city, in order to substantiate their sentence given [ in the case ] between Vander Veen’s aforesaid attorneys and Nicolaes de Meijer. The said commissioners say and contend that the sentence of last February 11 between the attorneys for Van der Veen and Nicolaes de Meyer cannot be properly appealed because, according to their instruction, the appeal should have been lodged within 20 days after the pronouncement, which did not happen, but a long time thereafter. Walewijn vander Veen’s attorneys answer and acknowledge that they did not appeal the sentence of the 11th of February within the usual time because they hoped that the case, to their relief, would be postponed until the arrival of Walewijn vander Veen himself, who is expected with the first ships, which they say [several lines lost] [      ] passed, for which on the first of this month they were condemned by the said burgomasters and schepenen to annul the mortgage in question within three times 24 hours on pain of 100 guilders, against which sentence they appeal, as they find themselves considerably injured by it.

The director general and councilors of New Netherland, having heard the claim of the aforesaid commissioners and the answer of Walewijn vander Veen’s attorneys, order that the case in question shall remain as it is until Walewijn vander Veen’s arrival, or otherwise to proceed in a writ of appeal before the director general and councilors according to legal form and custom. Dated as above.

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Translation: Gehring, C., & Venema, J. (Ed.). New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vol. 8, Council Minutes, 1656-1658 Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press: 2018.A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.